GRAND RAPIDS, MI — Kent County school districts have eight schools ranked in the highest percentile in Michigan — the 99th percentile of schools statewide — according to the Michigan Department of Education's top-to-bottom rankings of schools released Tuesday, Aug. 20.

Four Grand Rapids Public Schools test-in theme schools were rated tops again, followed by Forest Hills with two schools, and East Grand Rapids and Byron Center with one each in the top percentile.

The Top-to-Bottom list is part of Michigan's school accountability system. Schools that rank in the 99th percentile are considered to be among those top performers. Eight Kent County schools made this category.Michigan Department of Education

"There's a lot that we can learn from the schools that continue to rank in the 99th percentile that can be replicated throughout the district," said Grand Rapids Superintendent Teresa Weatherall Neal, who said one of the goals of her Transformation Plan is to have more than pockets of excellence in the district.

The rankings gauge overall performance based on student performance in mathematics, reading, writing, science and social studies and graduation rate data for high schools. The list identifies the worst-performing "priority" schools as the bottom 5 percent, the best-performing "reward" schools as the top 5 percent, and "focus" schools, where there is a sizable achievement gap between high-performing and low-performing students.

Forest Hills schools had nine reward schools the among schools in Kent County. There were a total of 45 reward schools – 29 in Kent and 16 in Ottawa. Hudsonville had the most reward schools in Ottawa with five. The two counties had 20 focus schools, eight in Kent and 12 in Ottawa.

But the rankings are all about accountability. And extra attention will be given to those buildings designated priority schools, which are in the lowest 5 percent of schools statewide. Those schools will be ordered to adopt an improvement plan or face being placed under state control.

Kent County has 10 schools among 137 schools statewide on the priority list (52 on the list for the first time), eight in Grand Rapids. East Kentwood High School in the 4th percentile and Godwin Heights Senior High School, in 0 percentile, fell into the category this year. Ottawa County had no schools on the priority list.

Kentwood Superintendent Mike Zoerhoff said, although East Kentwood’s academic performance was slightly below the Michigan average, all scores were within the average proficiency range identified by the state and its graduation measurements also were close to the state average. He said improvement scores related to the Michigan Merit Exam and the gap in scores between the top 30 percent and the bottom 30 percent of students affected the ranking.

“Our commitment is to bridge the performance gap between high and low performing students, while at the same time celebrating the fact that we have both highly sought-after, gifted and talented students and students that represent over 60 languages and countries,“ said Mike Zoerhoff. He specifically cited Crestwood Middle (17th percentile) and Discovery Elementary (66th percentile), which were named focus schools, and Glenwood Elementary (80th percentile) named a reward school.

Grand Rapids Union High School, the school that has been most at-risk for a state takeover because it has been in the bottom rung three consecutive years is now off the priority list. Moving from the 1st percentile to the 9th percentile still leaves it vulnerable, but school leaders are celebrating moving the needle.

“Turning schools around doesn’t happen by accident and takes time,” said Neal, who said improving schools is really a community issue. “We’ve been very strategic and enlisted a lot of great people to help with Union. We are celebrating moving in the right direction.”

She said 27 district schools saw their rankings improved and that speaks to the work of her staff and community partners. In addition to Union High, Alger Middle, Brookside Elementary, Mulick Park Elementary and Westwood Middle also were removed from the priority list.

At Union, she said her GRPS team worked with advisory panel as part of a governance structure implemented last school year that included Mayor George Heartwell, Police Chief Kevin Belk, and Diana Sieger, executive director of the Grand Rapids Community Foundation, which is investing millions in schools on the West Side. The school of around 1,200 students is predominately Hispanic and representatives from the Hispanic Center of Western Michigan have also been actively involved in the panel. The district replaced 50 percent of the Union High staff this fall. Only teachers rated effective or highly effective could reapply.

As Union is removed from the state's priority list, GRPS' Ottawa Hills High School was added, ranked in the 1st percentile. Ottawa Hills also was on the list in 2011.

“Representatives from the Department of Education say if school districts have schools in the 50th percentile or below, there’s a strong chance they could be in the lowest 5 percent (the following year),” said Ron Gorman, GRPS executive director of high schools and alternative education. Ottawa Hills is a prime example of this phenomenon. The school was ranked in the 13th percentile in 2012.

“The ranking is not because there’s not expertise in that building, there’s a lot, but we need to regain our focus. As a district, we need to be intense and intentional about moving our schools into the upper percentile.”

Schools on the list must submit a redesign plan to the state based on one of four options – including closing the building.

The state instituted a new five-color grading system to replace the up-or-down "adequate yearly progress" grade in this year’s report. The change is a product of the state's waiver of some federal requirements under the Elementary and Secondary Education Act. The federal law required the state to report if schools passed or failed the yearly progress measure, but did not include detailed information on the schools' performance.

The new system assigns each school a color: green, lime, yellow, orange or red based on its overall performance in multiple categories including testing participation, attendance and graduation rates, among others. Schools in the bottom 5 percent, as well as schools outside the bottom 5 percent that received poor scores in multiple categories, receive red grades, while schools at the top receive green grades.

Approximately three percent of schools received a green scorecard. There were 17 in green scorecards in Kent and Ottawa counties, including Zeeland's Adams Elementary and Zeeland Quest, and Blandford Nature Center and West Michigan Aviation Academy in Kent.

A detailed breakdown of schools is available on the state's school data website, or you can use the database here to see what grade your Michigan school received. Some schools are included not because they did not have enough information for the state to calculate.

To use the database, type in your local school's name, or use the drop-down menu to see all schools that received a specific color grade. Some schools may have the same name, so use the "Details" link to see the school district and other identifying information.